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Saturday, July 25, 2009

While romance might not be in the top one hundred and ten list of what I'm best at in this life, I have always been a sucker for romantic comedies. One of my favorite magazines out there, Paste, has it's list of the 17 Best Romantic Comedies This Decade.

I'm not sure of this list. No, wait. I am sure. I don't like it so much. Well, I like close to half of it.

Can we do better? How about it? What's your list of top romantic comedies this decade? And for that matter, let's go all the way. It is romance after all. Errr... umm... what I mean to say is...

Of course The Princess Bride50 First Dates -- this one actually surprised meThe Cutting Edge "Toe pick!" (watched this one again just the other day)While You Were Sleeping You've Got Mail (way better than Sleepless in Seattle, imo)

those're my picks

WandaV

p.s. Don't know that I'd consider Return to Me as a comedy. I cry everytime David D. does when he sits at the door with his dog.

Okay. I know I'm late to the party here. But I want to register a protest to Paste. Most of the movies they list aren't comedies and some of them aren't really romances. About A Boy, for example, has some comedic elements but the romantic subplot is almost irrelevant. It's a good movie from a very enjoyable novel. But it's not a romantic comedy unless we stretch the definition of romantic comedy to the point of meaninglessness. If "romantic comedy" means "any movie that isn't an obvious drama or action movie or suspense film or straight up farce or kids' movie or horror film," then Paste's list (and I don't want to point any fingers, but some of the lists posted here in the Realm) is worth at least considering.

Eternal Sunshine is one of my favorite movies of the last 10 years. But it's neither conventional romance nor comedy. And it's #1?! Good grief!

And, repeat after me, people. Say Anything is not a romantic comedy! It's subtle and brilliant and far smarter and better-executed than most movies that win best picture Oscars. It also registers very differently with me now than when I watched it as a college kid. (I could go on for days about this movie, but I won't.)

Nice call on Grosse Point Blanke, though, Doug. It's an actual romantic comedy (though an unconventional one) and it has the coolest character Cusack has ever played (not the best, but the coolest) and, of course, a killer soundtrack.

With Say Anything, I'm not sure what other genre you could put it into except romantic comedy. If one is hard-lined that movies have to work as comedies first to be a romantic comedy, sure most of these features fail. It's arguable, I guess.

But having scenes like at the Gas-N-Sip with Joe and the other three goons who break into the "Lloyd, Lloyd, he's trying to avoid..." rap and all the other advice they give him, that's almost straight comedy, imo. And his line after that, "That was a mistake." Hilarous. Smart. Clever. But also funny in the comedic sense.

The whole running his mouth at the table to Mr. Court and his accountant and wife just after the girls talk about Lloyd having that "nervous talking thing", that's comedy.

When Lloyd's standing outside of Diane's house holding the ghetto blaster over his head playing In Your Eyes, you go through a range of emotions, but you almost can't help but laugh there, because as much as it's heartbreaking, it's funny.

And when Diane comes to see him in the gym, and he gets drilled by the roundhouse kick - you laugh.

I think a lot of Cameron Crowe movies are thoughtful, heart-rending, romantic, with a touch of drama mixed in, but the ones I'm thinking of (Say Anything, Jerry Maguire, Elizabethtown), they also make you laugh.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I am grudgingly persuaded by the younger Pearce boy's argument about the definition of "romantic comedy" and specifically the movie Say Anything.

Though given Rich's hodge-podge of movies flung awkwardly under the label “Romantic Comedy”, I don't know why he picked on Doug's otherwise stellar list. Big Fish? Is it the main character's romance with his father that you found so comedic, Richard? Love the movie. Not a romantic comedy.

Say Anything would have been on my original list but after further thought (sadly, much further than I'd care to admit) I've omitted it. {Sigh}The list is long enough anyway.

On to my list. In addition to Brich's criteria, I've self-imposed the additional qualification that the movie have a lighter tone. I also think it's helpful if the unrequited love that dominates the plot is unrequited for a humorous reason, but I don't insist upon it.

No particular order and including titles from above that I felt strongly about. There are also a few oldies I like.

Also, buzzard, why didn't you just write a new post called "Romantic Comedies According to Ken (and Rich's Brother When Necessary)"?

For the life of me, I can't understand that you'll call A Knight's Tale -- a great movie, no doubt -- a romantic comedy, but then stick Say Anything into a different pocket of yours. Both of them have romances, Say Anything more than A Knight's Tale. Other than that, they're plotted stories that are humorous, but neither would be a comedy outright. However, there's enough humor that they can both be called romantic comedies, because there's not really any other classification for those sort of movies.

Also, where did I pick on Doug's list? I thought it was a good one.

Regarding Big Fish, Edward Bloom's whole pursuit of Sandra Templeton was comedic, and it easily captured enough of the story to qualify it. Certainly as much as A Knight's Tale as a romance, and far more comedic than any of the Jane Austen's you mentioned.

Lastly, if you need to borrow a couple romantic comedies, I'll lend them to you. I got a few.

While I agree that the comedy of Say Anything is not exactly with the relationship. But that movie is quite brilliant. And the movie REQUIRES the romance for it to work. So are you saying that this would be a comedy with a little romance thrown in on the side?!!!

Are you saying that a romantic comedy requires the banter to be between the hero and heroine?

I'm confused.

I would certainly add all the Jane Austin movies to my list and Shakespeare in Love.

I'm quite comfortable with that and much kudos for so many awesome movies that I missed on my list. I love most of the ones everyone has named.

Don't worry, Doug. It's not you. It's the romantic comedy rule legalism set in place by Ken and Brett.

With Say Anything, I think they're agreeing with the romance, but not that it's a comedy. However, I could be wrong, and as much as I'd like to speak for them - which would settle the entire matter - if I did, we'd hear it from the two. You can be sure of that.

First, I disagree with Doug (to a degree) that the romance is required for the movie to work. Of course, if you take the romance out, it's a completely different movie. But I think a great movie could have been made that centered on the relationship between Diane and Jim Court. He was a really bad guy but he manipulated her - a very smart girl - into believing he was a great guy. He isolated her from her peers, became her "best friend" despite the inappropriateness of such arrangements, and dominated and directed her life so that she lacked a real identity beyond what he wanted for her. He did all of this in addition to robbing dying old people and evading taxes. He's one of the most sinister characters you'll ever see in cinema. (Consider - He convinced Diane to choose him over her mother during their divorce, despite the fact he knew he was a criminal. Consider his icky jealous reaction to Diane's blossoming romance with Lloyd.) Jim Court was a bad dude with an adoring daughter that he used to feed his own ego. There's a powerful movie in there. But it's a different movie than the one that features Lloyd Dobler as protagonist.

Second, Say Anything... isn't a comedy. It has some comedic elements. But it's not a comedy, anymore than Dead Poet's Society (which is a total piece of unserious, fascist dreck) or Good Will Hunting (because I'm picking on Robin Williams) were comedies just because they had a few laugh lines thrown in. Say Anything is a serious, thoughtful drama. It's morally serious. It's serious in tone. It's one of those movies - like Groundhog Day (and how could no one mention THIS as a great romantic comedy) - that is deeper and greater than the filmmakers likely even intended. Say Anything is one of the great movies of the last 20 years.

So is Groundhog Day. It's certainly the best romantic comedy of the last 20 years. Nothing else comes close. But it's also an incredible movie on a philosophical level.

(BTW - I think Andie McDowell is a horrible actress, and yet she has appeared in two really terrific movies - Groundhog Day and Four Weddings and A Funeral - that are excellent romantic comedies and terrific movies in general. How does something like this happen?)

I considered Groundhog Day, which I love. But rejected it on the basis that because Bill Murray is not a romantic lead on any planet and certainly not with a Southern belle Revlon model that it must in fact be pure farce and therefore strictly a comedy.